Habits of the Home: Spatial Hegemony and the Structuration of House and Society in Brazil

This article examines the relation between spatial structure and social practice in a Brazilian fishing town. The sociospatial division of the Brazilian house into rooms with distinct social functions and role relationships helps to define the domestic practices of the family members and socializes them into a conception of social interaction that influences their economic and public practices outside the home. However, the hegemony of this domestic sociospatial structure is not autonomous, but rather stands in dynamic interaction with the public and economic dimensions of the household's reproduction in society. A comparison between canoe fishermen and boat fishermen demonstrates that their different involvement in the economic and public domains of the town affects their interpretation of the architectural structure of the house and differentiates their domestic practices.